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Sunday, January 27, 2013

How to Do a Liver Flush

How to Do a Liver Flush

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article on liver function. You may want to review that article before moving on to this one, just to refresh your memory on what the liver actually does (answer: a lot!).

Because the liver is vital, and can actually keep us alive with only 10-25% of it functioning, it is essential that we keep our livers in optimal condition.

How to do a liver flush

The first step in keeping the liver clean and functioning well is to perform seasonal liver flushes. If you have a chronic or "incurable" condition, you may elect to do one of these every two weeks, alternating with kidney and bladder flushes.Caution: Be sure your bowels are moving regularly before you attempt to do a liver flush. If you are in any way constipated, the toxins you will remove from your liver and gallbladder during a liver flush will make you feel very ill. Follow these links for instructions on how to do a colon detox before you attempt to cleanse your liver:How to Do a Colon Cleanse: Step One

What liver flushes do

The basic premise for doing liver flushes is to remove small gallstones from the gallbladder. While some medical doctors state that gall stones can never leave the gallbladder, the clinical science is there to support the fact that some gall stones do leave the gallbladder and are eliminated through the gastrointestinal tract.

The location of the liver and gallbladder in the human body- image by ADAM Medical Dictionary

Gall stones and bile stones are the same thing, just located in different places in the body. They are not made of "rocks," but rather are a collection of cholesterol buildup and possibly calcification over time.

At greatest risk for gall stones are obese females over the age of fifty with high blood serum cholesterol levels who take (or took) birth control pills. Rapid weight loss is another risk factor.

Gall stones can slip into the bile duct, causing a blockage and disease. If this happens, the flow of bile is obstructed, and there is nowhere for the bile to go but "up." This can cause jaundice, since bilirubin from the bile is reabsorbed back into the bloodstream. The entire biliary tree can become infected, or potentially fatal acute pancriatitis can set in.

10-20% of humans have gall stones, according to Virtual Medical Centre.com. Of people with gall stones, 10-15% experience gall stones slipping into the bile duct.

What liver flushes do not do

The controversy surrounding liver flushes are mostly due to photos such as this one:

These globs of olive oil found in a person's stool sample after drinking a liver flush drink the night before have been incorrectly identified as "liver stones." -image by Curezone.com

I have done several liver flushes myself, and once believed that the large "stones" I saw were from the gallbladder. They are not. However, I do believe that the gallbladder does release small gall stones into the bile duct and on into the intestines, and liver flushes can assist in this process.

My favorite liver flush recipe

There are several liver flush recipes out there. My favorite one is Dr. Richard Schulze's, because it is mild and contains no potentially unsafe ingredients. It is explained in the video at this link (seen best with Firefox).

This is the liver flush recipe, as described in Dr. Schulze's own Patient Handbook:

This actually tastes pretty good. Right now, grapefruits are in season and I am enjoying those. Three large grapefruit make about 12 oz. juice. I prefer this amount to the recommended 8 oz juice and 8 oz water in the recipe, because I teach school and am not allowed to leave the classroom to go to the restroom until my lunch break at noon. In my case, it might be a good idea to start the five day flush on a Wednesday and go through Sunday, so I could have two days where I was able to do this "right."

I recommend sipping this drink rather than "chugging" it. Some people have a difficult time drinking the olive oil and may experience some nausea. If this is the case, I recommend you add more ginger juice. Ginger is fantastic for nausea, as I outline in this Natural News.com article.